Talon’s hand settles on my knee beneath the counter, his thumb circling slowly. “Bullshit,” Talon murmurs, lips brushing my ear. “You’re shaking. Tell us.”
“Valen upset you.”
I pull away too fast, stool scraping the floor with a loud screech. “I’m fine.”
I’m not. My chest tightens viciously, breath catching. I can’t tell them. I can’t drop the bomb that one of their fathers might be the monster Valen wants dead. I can’t watch their faces fracture, or worse, watch them lie.
“Just... drop it,” I say. “Please.”
Dredyn’s eyes narrow. “Fine. For now. Eat.”
“We’ll circle back,” Talon adds. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Dredyn wipes his hands on a napkin. “Okay, okay. Fine. We will get to that. For now, you still owe me a rematch.”
“Oh yeah?” I scoff. “Last time, I had you sweating.”
Talon’s brow arches. “Careful, Dre. She’s feisty tonight.”
Jasper leans back against the wall, arms crossed, watching all of us.
We’ve been doing this every night.
Sparring.
Dredyn stands, towering over me, his grin feral. “Ring. Now. Let’s burn whatever’s eating you off.”
The four of us head down the basement. We moved Chase into a side room in the basement and reclaimed the space in the basement for our fighting ring, since the boys haven’t been participating in fight nights recently. They’ve left that up to the other guys in the frat.
Chase knows to stay quiet when we’re down here. If not, one of them will gag him and leave him without food. At least if he stays quiet, he gets to eat.
Sometimes, though, when I’m sparring with the guys, we hear him anyway. It’s because he knows I’m within earshot and he’s hoping a “help” might persuade me to convince the guys to let him go.
Unfortunately for Chase, I’m the one who wants to see him suffer worse than the guys do.
It’s almost a mercy though, to keep him here. If we took him back to PTO, I’m certain he would already be dead. Or worse, kept alive to be made an example of. The Syndicate doesn’t do second chances. His life is basically over, he just hasn’t come to that conclusion yet. He’s on borrowed time, currently ticking down in his concrete cell.
I don’t feel sympathy.
What I do feel is the rush that hits me when my feet hit the floor of the basement after climbing down the steps and realizing that I get a chance to go toe to toe with Dredyn.
He’s my favorite opponent, because he never pretends to be gentle. The other two usually go softer on me. Dredyn makes me earn every hit I land.
Quickly, I shed my socks off and duck under the ropes, stepping onto the mat. Dredyn ducks in across from me, already pulling his shirt off and tossing it aside. The low light catches the lines of his body, making heat rush to my core as he rolls his neck once and grins at me.
“Ready to eat mat, Hellcat?”
“Ready to get beat by a girl?”
Talon leans on the ropes. “Don’t break her too badly. Let’s leave that for later.”
Jasper perches on the bench, forearms on his thighs.“Kick his ass.”
We start circling.
I strike first—jab fast and vicious.
He blocks. “That all you got?”
